


Heroes of Yharnam

by ColdCoffins



Series: Heroes of Yharnam Tales [1]
Category: Bloodborne (Video Game), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Bloodborne / BNHA crossover, Crossover, Gen, Is this a slow burn as the kids say?, M/M, See how this goes, You know for fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-07-08
Packaged: 2019-05-28 18:13:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15054923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ColdCoffins/pseuds/ColdCoffins
Summary: The church spy Aizawa is asked to do some spying on the city's greatest hunter.The people have called him, 'All Might' as there is no beast his fists, clenching hunks of iron to aide him, cannot crush.Only the church has some growing suspicion of the mighty hunter. A question they need their church spy to answer.





	1. The Church Spy's Assignment

**Author's Note:**

> So I drew Aizawa in the harrowed set and All Might in the executioners set awhile back and it kinda stuck in my mind.  
> 1st chapter is short but here we go~

With great groans and creaks, the doors to the grand cathedral of Yharnam opened to allow entrance. A single man was entering, the two pale church servants held each side of the giant doors, ornately engraved. Beside said giants, two statues of porously headed figured clutched torches to light away the shadows.

The man continues inside, his steps make little nose on the cold stone floor. He passes dimly lit candles and begins the incline of stairs. He moves in silence under the steeples of crossed spears held by the lengthy boney arms of more porous headed creatures. Upon his ascend to the new level of the grand cathedral, he is greeted with an open altar of worship. A barren tree sprouts behind a headless angelic figure, pouring her empty vase onto the altar from above. 

He stops just before he reaches the intricate structures front, before a figure donned in white robed clothing. Around their shoulders, a bright silver embroidered shawl was wrapped.

“Welcome.” The figure speaks and bows. 

In response, the man dressed in what would almost be harrowed rags kneels before bowing himself. His long black hair brushes the patterned marble floor.

 Somewhere, echoing through the high ceiling of the cathedral he hears the arias of the choir.

 “Rise, Aizawa Shota, loyal servant of the church.” The figure in white says, their hands neatly folded on their midsection, hidden in their long flowing sleeves.

 “The Vicar asks of my services.” Aizawa speaks as he stands.

 "Yes, indeed. The church has a task to ask of you, loyal spy.”  
  
A task.

A task could mean many things for a spy of the church. Such things could range from observing the local acolyte for signs of turning to the beastly scourge, to assassinating said acolyte before such signs could arise. They could range from sleeping and nesting among the poor in the damp back allies, to then reporting their location to be detained the very next morning.

What dirty work shall you have me perform today?

“What does the church command?”  
  
At his question, the figure in white begins their explanation.

 “Why, for you to spy, of course. Only your target is no mere hunter or citizen.”  
  
Aizawa narrows his eyes, his often bloodshot, tired eyes.

The cleric in white took this as a notion to spit out their words.

 “All Might’ as the people of Yharnam have taken to calling him.”  
  
“All Might? Why?” Aizawa’s posture did not become any more relaxed from his moment of entering.

 “The church has reason to believe...he is no longer useful as leader of the church hunters.”  
  
Ah, no longer useful. What a nice way to say, ‘he is either turning from the plague’, or ‘he must be hastily replaced due to his meddling in some way.’

 “And if your suspicions are correct?” Aizawa raises a brow, barley visible from his raven black hair falling about his face. Surely they did not expect him to be able to defeat All Might. No hunter had. No beast had either. Anything that crosses All Might’s fists would be shattered into pieces.

 “Tell us so. This is all we wish to know.” The figure in white steps up, producing a roll of paper wrapped in a thin red ribbon from their deep sleeves. They held it out to the spy. “This is an order from the Vicar. A great beast has been terrorizing the great bridge of the city. It is preventing passage in and out of Cathedral Ward. The order is for you and the great hunter All Might to slay the creature.”

“I am not much one for…’up close and personal’ beast hunting tactics.” Aizawa frown.

 “A frontal assault and a cover of powerful restraint tactics. I think you two would work together quite nicely. The Vicar certainly did.”

The church spy’s fingers nearly clench around the scroll as he receives it.

 “Do not delay. The sun is nearly gone. The nightly hunt will begin shortly.”  
  
Bowing curtly, Aizawa turns to leave the great cathedral. The two doors still hung open for him to make his leave at the stairs bottom. He pauses, looking out at the city skyline from the cathedral steps. The sky had turned a bright fiery orange, the purples of nightfall seeming to creep in faintly from behind.

 He reaches a hand out, a small dust of ash sweeping through his fingers as it rides on the evening air.

 Fires already burning and being stoked.

 The spy turns his eyes to the direction of the great bridge. The outside of cathedral ward, central Yharnam, where the plague was still actively claiming victims on the streets.

 Do your job. Keep your head down.

Or you’ll be in no closer to finding anything. You’ll be in no better position than the once hero of the hunt, All Might.

 

 

\----------------Here is the original pic ---------------------------

 

 


	2. The Hunter 'All Might'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aizawa meets his partner to begin their hunt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew still trying with this not sure how successful it is but still tryin

 

“BEAST!”  
  
“He’s a beast!”  
  
“Kill him before he kills us!”  
  
“It is your duty! To protect us!”  
  
A crowd cries out for the blood of a man tied to a post in the square. Their hands clutch torches and pitchforks, weapons of the makeshift kind that wouldn’t last a night of a proper hunt. They holler and curse at a captured man who hangs his head low. Kindling is piled at his feet, dry as aged bones and quick to go up in flame. It is a traditional picture of a town stake burning.

In front of the prosecuted man, stands a church hunter towering in stature. A giant to rival those pale titans that belong to the church, should this mob attack the man there would be no challenge. He could shake them all off like annoying flies.

He stands tall and statuesque in his grey executioner garb, a long black embroidered shawl hanging off his shoulders. His blonde hair catches the light like golden rays. The sun was rarely seen to shine as bright over the city.

 “Please, calm yourselves!” His voice is vibrant and boisterous, as if it fills out his broad chest when he speaks. “This man is human, I see no beast here!”

“Not yet you don’t!”

“Burn him!”  
  
“Those who are sick are cursed!”  
  
“See reason here!” The large man in the executioners garb’s voice remains unwavering, “ This man is your neighbor, he is a man of Yharnam. You have seen him, spoken with him. Does he present himself in the manner of a monster?”

A murmur travels as a wave among the crowd. The atmosphere is thick with tension, as if itself would alite in an insatiable mob, as eager to consume the accused as the fire.

 

Ignite it does.

 

“Damn you and the church!”  
  
A hand flies up from the crowd. A torch is flung overhead in an arch, aiming for the kindling at the post’s bottom.

 A larger hand reaches out, and  grasps it before it hits its mark.

 The crowd of angry citizens goes quite. Each might as well be a headstone, like the many that stand in the growing graveyards of the city.

 The hunter straightens to his full height, casting a towering shadow over the mob. The flickering torch light is held tight in his hand.

“How sad. Have the good people of this city...given up hope so easily?”

 He cups his hand near the flame, before engulfing the smouldering top in his palm. The hunter doesn’t flinch. The calluses of his hand have layered thick over the years with every swing of his fists.

 “You must not succumb to your fear. You have but each other to rely on in these times. Are you but sheep? No, even sheep will not turn to bite one another.”

He points to the accused, “This man’s life will rest upon my judgement. Should I be false, I am at your judgement in turn.”  
  
A heavy silence blankets the crowd. Slowly, weapons and torches begin to lower.

 

That was better.

 

There were no beasts here. None save for the one’s eating the hearts of these citizens, the ones eating the heart of the city. It was a creature All Might could not deal by with his fists. It was temperamental and erratic, and the people had enough of it. All Might had seen them, those who cover their eyes, for the view of the city was only rigid and unreal. He could only continue to look, and try to be a shield against that reality, in hopes the entire city would not turn to blindness.

 “Release this man. All is well, now. I am here.” All Might looks out at the crowd, and his bright blue eyes show forth from the deep shadows that gather under his brow. His eyes almost glow a clear, piercing blue. He steps away from the stake.

 The only way to reinforce a pillar was to be an even more, unfaltering pillar.

 Slowly, the people move forward to untie their neighbor. No words are spoken in the apprehensive moment. All Might does not budge from his watchful pose until every last person had dispersed from the area.

 “Finally...how can I help you?”

 Aizawa blinks when he is suddenly addressed by the hunter. He had slipped among the crowd easily as another face, another Yharnamite.  It was a spy's job to not look like a spy. They had to be any other person, someone who you could forget their face after you've passed them in the street. This man had picked him out however.

A good memory, Aizawa notes.

 “You have been trailing me since the sun set. The hunt is tonight, you know.” All Might turns, facing the spy, a broad smile on his face. “I’d hate to think you are hunting me.”

It was something about his smile. It was...strangely disarming. Aizawa didn’t like it.

 “Are you always disrupting the local activities?” Aizawa spoke plainly. If All Might would have a beaming smile, Aizawa’s lips made a thin line set in stone.

  
“Ah…” The larger hunter’s shoulder’s briefly fell, “The city has seen better times…” His posture perks again, “They simply must be reminded the person next to them is not their enemy, nor will they suddenly become one.”  
  
“You put your own judgement to be tested by the people.”  
  
  
“If some blows must be taken to keep things civil...surely I can do that. Wouldn’t you agree?”  
  
Something was irking the church spy about this man. An annoying tweak in the back of his brain. Was it his bravado? His mannerisms went against everything the spy learned to be. Stealthy, underhanded...quiet. There was a word for this hunter, a word he couldn’t place quite yet.

Self-righteous? Or was it some form of self martyrdom? It went along with his stupid smile...

 

Aizawa didn’t like it.

 

Wordlessly, Aizawa produces the tied scroll. He holds it out to the large hunter.

 “I’m not stalking you to hunt you.”

 All Might takes the paper, undoing its tied red ribbon. He looked over its contents in silence before loosing a barking laugh that made Aizawa jump in his skin.

 “My mistake!” One of his large hands clapps Aizawa on the shoulder, something the church spy has to brace for, “You are not to hunt me, but hunt WITH me! It’s rare the church sends me aide, this beast must be giving them trouble!”  
  
“Yes...” Aizawa frown at the giant hand cupping his shoulder. “So we shouldn’t delay any longer than needed.”

 The large hunter watched as the spy peeled his hand away before beginning forward. His steps were light and easy, something of a cat strutting by. This spy seemed to naturally hold an aloof nature, much like the felines themselves.

 “Ah, wait, I didn’t ask your name, fellow hunter.” All Might calls out to the other man’s back.

  
Pausing, the spy glances over his shoulder, through his raven hair. “Call me Aizawa. No need to return the gesture...I am quite aware of what the people call you...All Might.”

 Something pulls at the sides of the larger hunter’s mouth. A grimace. He had never worked with another hunter of this type before. A hunter not brandishing a heavy obtuse kirkhammer or a wide broadsword, someone who could provide a supporting strength while he punched a monsters lights out. It was everything against what the hunter had learned to be.

There was a word for this other church hunter, a word he couldn’t quite come to yet.

A scratch at the back of his throat, an unsightly reminder coming up, brought All Might to cough wetly into his fist. Upon peeking at his hand, blots of bright crimson were spattered along its side. His grimace tightens. 

 

“Are you coming?”  
  
“Yes, Aizawa, I’m right behind you!” He bolsters, quickly wiping away the red.  
  
What word was it?  
  
Oh yes.

 

Obstreperous.

 


	3. The Beast Hunt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All Might and Aizawa find the beast of the great bridge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter might wrap this up. I might make it a series. Write more parts when I think of them

* * *

The great bridge of central Yharnam. The structure was a feat of architecture among the city’s top achievements. From the windows of yharnam homes perched high, the long brick and stone bridge could be see stretching a connection of central Yharnam to the city’s hub of Cathedral Ward. It was a main exit and entrance to the city's inclusive center. The home of the center of yharnam, the Healing Church. The blood of the city, you could say. It was a barrier and a door. Something to selectively let those the healing church deemed in, or keep the populous out.  
For a beast to make transportation in and out difficult, it did cause a problem for those in need of treatment from the Healing Church.

Thus, this creature will have to be dealt with. All Might thinks, as he travels down the wide path, capable of fitting two carriages traveling in either direction.

The sound of his boots is almost lost in the whistles of the wind from the bridge height. The thick fabric of his executioner's cape is caught lightly in the winds fingers. His gravity defying golden bangs sway atop his head.

Beside him, Aizawa can’t help but glance down from the bridge’s impressive elevation. He gives a quick flick of his head to clear his long black hair out of his sight.

His eyes dart among the shadows and caved silhouettes of the decaying old district below. It now only served as a base to be built upon and forgotten. It was the best way to rub out a mistake after all. Build on top of it.

“If a beast is keeping transportation out...it must be a large one.” All Might spoke, his voice breaking the sound of the light wind.

“Yes.” Aizawa as he leans away from the edge, stepping closer to where All Might stood at the center of the path. “Now, what is your plan of action?”

  
“Plan…?” All Might looks over to Aizawa as if he asked him the orbital velocity of the moon.

“Surely you didn’t think to just go in swinging…” Upon viewing the larger hunter’s expression, Aziawa’s face went stark. “By the Gods you did...”

“I will be honest...I usually take the situation as it comes.” All Might’s usually confident smile now shown sheepishly.

“No.” The spy retorts flatly, no debate available, “We make a plan and stick to it.”

He raises a hand and pulls at the cloth around his shoulders. It loosens into slack, almost seeming to be alive in flowing loops under the church spy’s control. “I’ll keep it simple for you. I’ll restrain it, you’ll punch it.”

  
“Y-yes...” All Might agrees half-heartedly, trying not to grimace again.

That word kept coming back to his mind.

Obstreperous. Obstreperous. Obstreperous.

As All Might makes to move under an arch of the bridge, an impact rocks the structure.

“Look out!”

Before he can fully realize it, the long cloth that was once around the church spy’s neck was now coiled around All Might’s waist and wrist.

It's not just a scarf after all, All Might decided quickly as he felt the fiber’s suddenly turn into rigid hooks.

Aizawa pulls hard, yanking the larger hunter out of the way as an abandoned carriage comes crashing down the bridge length. It tumbles and bounces, throwing bits of iron and splintering wood as it went before it skids to a stop.

Both men look to the culprit, jaws slightly slack.

What could throw a carriage built to carry a party like a child with a ball?

What manner of beast was this?

To their answer, a long, great arm stretches up over a pile of debris around the main gate. Coarse grey fur sprouts heavily in all directions from the huge limb, ending in a long fingered hand with claws longer than sabers. A screech tears through the air as it vaults its large, yet boney, body over the other side to meet the two hunters. The beast crouches briefly before it lets out another scream from its sharp toothed maw. It had no eyes, its head a hard bone-like anatomy that branched out from either side of its head to form a broad pair of crooked antlers.

How in the Gods did it get so large?

The thought comes to both the hunters before they both spring away as its massive right hand, larger than its smaller, thinner left, came crashing down on the brick where they once stood. It explodes a cloud of dust and debris into the air around the structure.

“Stick to the plan! I’ll restrain it, you--” That large hand with the fingers long as rifles, and saber claws wastes little time to strike again, aiming for the spy.

How could something this size move at such a quick, vicious speed?

Aizawa braces, holding up taut lengths of his capture cloth to snare the beasts hand, but a shadow darkens his view.  
He blinks at the wall that moved before him.  
He realizes this wall is his fellow hunter.

Was his back...always this broad…? Aizawa can’t help but think.

All Might strains against the beasts own strength as each of his large hands holds its fingers to push back against its mighty arm. His boots dig against the brick in scrapes.

“Aizawa - if you would!” All Might grunts out.

Sticking to the plan after all, Aizawa gives a thin smile. With a flash of his wrists he looses out the end of his restraints. Like snakes they wrap around the great arm before snapping tight.

The beast tries to withdraw its limb, but with the two hunters holding it, it cannot budge.

Pivoting his waste sharply, All Might turns on his toes. Aizawa sees the motion and moves like liquid with what he knows comes next. The spy watches as the creatures crooked back legs leave the ground and it sails overhead, over All Mights shoulder.

He threw it. He threw it over his shoulder.

Moving in tandem, Aizawa gives his restraints slack to follow through with the toss before tightening again to crook the beasts great long arm behind its back. It screams its surprise as it tries to rise again, trying to free it’s now useless limb.

“Go, while its arm is tied!”

“No need to say so!” All Might calls out as he rushes forward, in his fists are clenched two solid blocks of iron, finger holes conveniently made to aid his grasp.

The beast raises its head and screeches as All Might reels back his fist.

Lighting, it felt as though a bolt of lighting was arching through his body. It locked every fiber of muscle in the hunter’s body, he becomes a statue. A splash of blood spurts from between his teeth, clench in a tormented grimace.

Realizing the larger hunter hadn’t given a final blow, Aizawa’s eyes shoot up.

He froze?

“Hey, move!” Aizawa shouts.

Too late, the beasts free hand swipes out, making large claw gashes through All Might’s garb.

The spy pulls himself airborne, twisting to gain momentum before he crashes down on the beasts head, slamming jaws that were about to envelope All Might closed with his weight.

“MOVE!” Aizawa cries out, leaping away again.

  
All Might snaps from his sudden hold, reeling back again.

The block of iron glints dimly.

“SMASH!”

All Might roars as that block of iron makes contact with the side of the beasts skull. The sound it makes reverberates like a church bell through the city.

Bright red spews forth as a fountain, painting itself on the large hunter and his iron fists.

Twitching still, the beast falls. Its tongue lolls from its mouth in a pool of blood. Its long fingers on its great hand move erratically until they too clutch still as a dead spider curling inward.

Aizawa is left panting. He briefly glances to the raw red of his hands, flexing his palms. With a jerk of his arms, he recalls his restraint cloth back to him. He wasn’t use to hunting anything this size. When did beasts get this big?

Looking over, Aizawa eyes find All Might. The large hunter hadn’t moved from his original position. Smoke from the beasts crashing body envelopes him still, nearly obscuring his figure.  
Aizawa could have mistaken him for one of the statues that stood around the bridge sides.

“Are you well? ...All Might!” He begins to trot over, his cloth  settling loosely around his shoulders.

“I…” All Might answers. “I am fine…!”

Something was wrong with his voice. To Aizawa it sounds as though its trembling.

  
“You took a good hit from it. Here, let me see.” Aizawa moves to get close only for All Might to shrink away from the spy.

“It-its all right!” All Might holds up a large hand. “No need, Aizawa. Our task is complete...y-you may go report back to the church now.”

“Don’t be a fool. Let me at least see if you were harmed.” Aizawa grabs his shoulder and yanks him to face him.

The motion brings the larger hunter to his knees, a solid ‘klunk!’ of an iron block hitting the brick sounds.

Something stuck in Aizawa’s throat at what he sees.

His eyes travel up and down the larger hunter. All Might still grasped his iron fists, only on his right, it had met the ground. The sleeve and glove of his garb hung loose, as if nothing was underneath.

It was as if he couldn’t lift the iron anymore.

It was the same for the entire side of his right body, it was swimming in the folds and heavy cloth of his executioners garb. On his left, his chest was still blown out with muscle, his arm still fitting tight in its sleeve.

And what was that? Coming off his body? It was steam, nearly hidden by the dust cloud.

Aizawa is stunned into silence his eyes, his sharp eyes, continuing to travel around the other hunter’s body.

His eyes.  
Watching the spies eyes dart and scan over him made something twist in All Mights chest. He sees Aizawa's eyes stare through the slash in his garb, at the raw scar blooming from his side.

It made him wonder if he could continue shrinking down to nothing, disappear from the spys sight as ash in the air.

All Mights breath is caught in his throat,  
along with a wet coating of blood. He stares back with his bright blue eyes in shadows.

“What...is this?” Words come to Aizawa again.

Words come to Aizawas mind as well.

_The church has reason to believe...he is no long useful as leader of the church hunters.’_

“What’s wrong with you? ...you’re shrinking…?”

All Might coughs wetly, blood leaking from the corner of his mouth.

“I...can explain…” All Might responds with a rattled breath.

Before Aizawa can speak again, he feels the razor edge of a blade come to his throat.

A black blade, thin and warped.

“Don’t move.” A voice muffled by a crow plague doctors mask speaks into his ear. “I need to help Toshinori...and I need your assistance to do so.”

Aizawa pauses, “...He owes me an explanation.”

“And you’ll get it. Once you help me help him.” The crow masked stranger says again.

 

 


	4. A Matter of Pride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crow masked stranger and Aizawa help All Might after the beast battle, and Aizawa continues to be surprised by the nights events.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still going. Prolly will wrap up next chapter. Thanks for still sticking around if youre here.

Aizawa had never guessed he would be making a visit to the home of All Might this night. It was a district of city that was well kept, yet not superfluous. Garden boxes hung from barred windows outside stone and brick homes. A fountain trickles its small streams in a nearby round square. Afew trees had branched through the stone foundation to continue their growth, though their arms are bare. Gaslights glow from the lanterns placed about the stone street to the smaller versions that are perched outside people’s homes.

Aizawa peeks at the scene from behind a curtain window, looking beyond the bars that were nearly mandatory outside any window if the homeowner didn’t want a bloodthirsty beast breaking in. The incense burner lamp near the door glows its pink soft shade. No beasts would come by for sure. He pulls the curtain shut, before doing the same for the rest of the windows as he was asked.

Among this, the spy hadn’t expected the other events the night had offered. With All Might he had taken down one of the biggest beasts he had ever witnessed. Beasts were usually slightly larger than your average person depending on the severity of their infection, yet to see a creature nearly as tall as a house wasn’t normal.

 Yet is any of this normal? Aizawa thinks.

His boot steps on the wood floor announce his entrance to a parlor room.

“Blinds are shut.” He reports.

“Thank you,” Speaks a black haired man who had removed his plague mask upon entering the home, “It is greatly appreciated.”  
  
The man, Naomasa Tsukauchi,  sat in a stool by an occupied chair.  He was donned in a crow feathered black garb, something Aizawa recognized at their meeting on the bridge.

It was known by every hunter, that there was a penalty for letting the blood go to their heads. They would be hunted by a crow.  Few came in contact with their thin black blades and weren’t fed to the birds.

Aizawa considered himself lucky in that way. 

Unrolled on a small stand by the crow hunter, was one of the satchels he kept around his belt. Inside was a syringe, two small vials of blood and a needle with thread. All instruments of quickly mending wounds while on a hunt.

Sitting in the chair across from the crow was the final surprise of Aizawa’s evening. It was All Might himself, but never as the spy had seen him before. His executioner's robes hung off him in slacks, no longer fitting his skeletal, thin body. His usual slicked back hair was now a fray of golden locks, his normally gravity defying bangs hung down on either side of his now prominent cheekbones as if exhausted.   

Something that hadn’t changed much on the man were his eyes. They still shown a vivid blue from sunken shadows.

 “You understand why I can’t be seen like this.” All Might speaks to Aizawa as he easily shrugs off the top of his executioners garb for the fabric to puddle around his midsection. 

“I could imagine.” The spy responds.

And then there it was. Aizawa’s eyes can’t help but be drawn to it.

On All Might’s now exposed torso a massive scar is spread to take up nearly his entire left side. Like the gnarled fingers of roots it bloomed up his pectoral and down his pelvis. It made the four bleeding slashes he received from the beast on his chest look like cat scratches.

Through the claw marks in All Might’s garb, Aizawa managed to get a peek, but this was more than he imagined.

 “Not a pretty sight is it?” All Might’s voice has a cringe in it that breaks Aizawa’s near trance.

“I am more curious as to how it happened.” Aizawa blinks, shifting his gaze from the scar.

“A particular beast..." All Might tells him, "Well, he was a man first and then became a beast. He had human reasoning and could take human shape...it wasn’t anything I had seen before. It was something the city was not to know--ow!” 

“Sorry.” Tsukauchi mutters as he stuck the tip of the syringe just outside the edge of one of the slashes on All Might’s chest. The red of healing blood flows through the point and into the flesh.

“Why couldn’t the Healing Church aid you? The blood heals everything, yes?” Aizawa furrows his brow. 

“You can’t heal what’s been destroyed.” All Might gave a wry smile before looking to Tsukauchi, “How is it?”  
  
“Give it an hour…” The crow hunter said, placing a final long strip of gauze over the last gash. “The blood will do its work.” He stood, rolling his satchel shut before looking to Aizawa.

“I thank you for your help. Aizawa, was it?” 

“Yes.” The spy answered.

"I ask of you one more favor."   
  
"I'm listening." 

“I have more work to do before the hunt ends. Please, stay with Toshinori until morning. I don’t want him going anywhere.” 

“Tsukauchi-!” All Might, ‘Toshinori’, objects, starting to stand from his spot.

Well, part of Aizawa’s current assignment was to accompany the hunter All Might. 

"I'll do it." Aizawa responds. 

"Wait now..." All Might voices his objection again before Tsukauchi stands directly in front of him. 

“Stay put." Tsukauchi's voice was unmoved as he put a hand on his friend's shoulder with a firm shake. "There is still much time left to the hunt, and you are in no condition to be on the streets.”

Tsukauchi nodded to Aizawa before shielding his face behind his plague mask. With a sweep of his black feathered garb, the crow hunter leaves the parlor room. The sound of the front door closing told Aizawa that he and All Might only had each others company.

The spy looks in All Might’s direction when he hears him huff in amusement.

“Tsukauchi..the man worries too much.” He stands with a resigned smile on his face. With a grunt he begins shouldering on his garb and pulling his boney arm into a blanketing sleeve. “Now then, we still have the church to report to.”  
  
“You’re not serious.” Aizawa states in unmovable reason, as if All Might had asked to stand in front of a cannon. 

“Am I not?” Toshinori pulls at the edges of his cape, adjusting it where it nearly hangs off his shoulders.

“There is tomorrow.” Aizawa says, “You heard the crow hunter, and I doubt you should be going anywhere currently.”

  
“Come now, Aizawa.” Toshinori motions to his front with a hand, “You wouldn’t have objected earlier.”

  
“That was before.” The spy crosses his arms, “In my opinion, you shouldn’t be gallivanting out on the town at all. Are you mad?”  
  
A shadow crosses over Toshinori’s face as his smile drops. It only pronounced his skeletal features while his eyes nearly seemed to be illuminated.

 “Forgive me, but I've been doing this longer than you, Aizawa. I know my limits.”

 “No, you don’t. Do you even have any idea as to why I was asked to accompany you?” An edge enters Aizawa’s voice.

 “My health...am I correct?” All Might states simply.

His words hang in the air. He began to pull up his sleeve where his left arm was bandaged to the shoulder.

“You’re here to determine if I am to be removed.”

Loosing a slip of the bandage, he rolls the layers away from his forearm. Aizawa’s jaw tightens, his hands grasp the torn fabric around his biceps where his arms are folded at what he sees.

A grey, pallid kind of flesh has begun to creep up from what the rest of the bandage hides near All Might’s wrist. Growing in thicker patches, familiar looking pale blonde coarse hair sprouts.

All Might was older than the spy. He had been taking the blood longer than him, and no doubt more frequently with the way he charged into battles. He was a rising star that threw himself into the fray. If Aizawa had to guess from the looks of thing, All Might would be beginning to grow claws under those bandaged fingers soon. 

Aizawa felt dark thorns twisting in his gut. He felt like a fool for not figuring it out quicker. 

“Don’t worry.” Toshinori’s voice snatches him back from this thoughts as the thin hunter begins to wrap his arm once more. “If the plague doesn’t take me, I’ll become of no use to anyone soon enough.”

His blue eyes turn to the spy, something challenging flashing in them briefly.

“At the very least, we can report the bridge beast is dead. What you determine to tell them from there, is up to you.”

Toshinori begins to move past Aizawa, his shoulders back, towards the door of his home. There is little noise made in the moment, save for the spacey hollow sound of the thin hunter’s boots meeting the floor.

“Well? Are you coming--”

 

SNAP!

  
  
The snake of pale cloth strikes out and loops around All Might’s wrist before wrapping tight. Guided by his wrist, Toshinori’s arm lifts slightly in the tension. Following up the path of the restraint cloth, the ends are gripped in Aizawa’s hands. 

“Aizawa…” Toshinori begins, something wavers in his voice, the sound of a warning. “Release me.”

“Do you still plan on going to the church? Like this, no less?” Aizawa’s voice is nearly mocking, tension lining it tight as the fibers in his restraints.

“Yes.”

There was no mistake. It was not a simple matter of leaving anymore, it was a matter of All Might’s pride now. His pride as the leader of the church hunters. His pride as the man who could knockout beasts cold with his own fists.

His pride for what he built in Yharnam.

  
“Then my answer is no.” Aizawa retorts. 

All Might pulls his restrained arm back against the taut cloth, his shoulders rising in effort. Perhaps his eyes were tricking him, but All Might's already impressive height was beginning to seem more looming to Aizawa then before.

No. Wait.

He was actually getting bigger.  
  
It was a steady swell, but in front of Aizawa's eyes, Toshinori was growing. Muscle was pushing up from his flesh as vein’s strained and steam rose forth.

Quickly, the spy looses the second end of his restraint cloth to wrap around All Might’s body in a quick grab, the large hunter's arms now pinned to his sides. The action only seems to push  All Might on in his efforts, as with an loud grunt, his body blows out to its full bulked form.

A spurt of red leaks from between the restrain cloth.

His wounds, Aizawa remembers, No doubt the sudden change of his size re-opened the slashes he received from the beast on the bridge.

 A second splash of red comes from All Might’s throat, he hacks a splash blood on the floor before he falls to his knees, a tree trunk hitting the ground. All Might curls over forward, taking audible harsh breaths that rack his body. Wet sounding, hollow harsh breaths. As he twitches under Aizawa’s hard gaze, steam begins rolling off his shoulders.

Steadily, the large hunter began to shrink to his skeletal size once more.

 It was a matter of pride.

Toshinori hangs his head in his bent position, his long blonde bangs brush the floor now spattered with blood just under him. A steady leak of blood and bile runs from his mouth. His mind ran fuzzy and light headed.

The room was silent and still. What broke the heavy silence was the steady, 

drip...

drip...

drip...

of Toshinori's blood. 

He couldn’t think about it.

Not now. That would only solidify it, make it more of a reality; another punch in the gut from the past, from what he was. What he used to be.

A shadow fell over him, shielding out the candle light. Aizawa squats down to perch on his toes in front of the thin hunter. His hands still hold his capture cloth, but they are looser now, his arms looking more relaxed as they rest on his knees.

“Toshinori,” Aizawa begins, his voice a steady calm, “ are you finished?”

He receives a wet cough as a response.

Aizawa nearly sighs, cocking his head to attempt to look at the hunter's face better.

“You opened your wounds.” Aizawa explains, “I need to re-dress them. ...You hear me?”

  
For a moment, Toshinori only replied with wet, hollow breaths. The hunter coughs once more before he nods slowly.

 “Yes.” All Might speaks.  
  
Easing his wrists, Aizawa releases the tight bond of the capture cloth. It fell easily into slack before gathering back around the spy’s shoulders.

Aizawa offers his hand, the invitation was easy, quiet. It took All Might a short second before he reaches up and takes the spy's hand to help him up.

 Upon standing, Aizawa’s eyes found the braided front tie that kept All Might’s cape on his shoulders. He begins to undo it with careful movements of his fingers. Once the braided string comes loose, he takes the cape and the black embroidered church shawl off the hunter. In his arms, the thick fabric felt weighty. 

“Isn’t this thing heavy?” Aizawa asks as he drapes it over a chair.

“Not so much as you think…” Toshinori responds a slim smile attempting to form before wiping away some of the red from his mouth.

 Lightly putting his palms on each shoulder, the spy guides Toshinori back to a seat. Gods, he felt hot under his hands. It was as if the thin hunter had been running a fever in his flesh.

The thin hunter sits stiffly in the chair, and Aizawa takes a step back.

“I’m going to get some supplies...I trust you have them?” Aizawa says.   
  
“Upstairs…” All Might gestures a boney pointed finger to the direction of the second floor.

“Good. Now...stay put.” Aizawa pauses with a short added, "Please. "

He turns, and leaves the parlor room to begins up the stairs with steady steps.

This truly was a night of unexpected surprises.

 


	5. A Matter of Trust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aizawa 's wants to learn afew things about Toshinori's health before retiring for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still Going. Yep.

”Once you wake...the blood should have healed these.” Aizawa says withdrawing the syringe from the edge of a gash wound produced by a hand of beastly claws.

  
Aizawa found it slightly difficult to find a good amount of flesh to work with on Toshinoris chest. Much like the rest of him, he was only skin covering bone and scant of anything else in between. He wrapped the strips of gauze over the four slashes across All Mights chest, giving a nod at his work before he leans back.

“Any better?”

“If anything, the sting has faded.” All Might responds from his seat. His arms are down by his sides, his left in particular doing as much as it could in its skeletal form to cover the scar ingrained on his torso.

“Thank you, Aizawa.”

“Don’t thank me yet.” Aizawa says as he stands. He moves around to the back of Toshinoris seat.

“Sit up, hands over your head.”

All Might gives the spy a puzzled, if not slightly startled, look over his shoulder.

“Why?”

“Do as I say.” Aziawas voice didn’t change from its listless tone, “Im going to do a palpitation, see if anything else needs to be done before I sleep for the night.”

In other words...you want to know how sick I am, eh? All Might thinks.

He thinks about the choice to let Aizawa go through with his plan. The thought nearly makes him tremble, of all things. Stop. He was too old for such things. Too... sick for such things. 

Slowly, with a sigh, All Might raises his arms over his head. It exposes his sickly body to the spy, all of his ribs on display for the counting. His blooming scar is on the front line exhibit as well. Upon doing so, Toshinori becomes an immediate expert ceiling and wall inspector.

Aizawa then softy puts his hands on Toshinoris shoulders, an introduction. A notice. He begins to put pressure on certain muscles, push or hold for a moment before moving on.

For a brief second, Toshinori fights the impulse to shift forms. Something about being such a sight in front of the spy made it feel necessary, a unconscious flinch in the back of his mind, an almost ‘fight or flight’ defensive reaction. 

No, it wouldn't do any good. You'd just open your wounds again, All Might reminds himself, Its fine. 

“Breathe.” Aizawa says.

Toshinori does.

Aizawas hands hold just around the upper back of his ribs, feeling the expansion and then the contraction-

Of one lung.

One? Aizawa blinks.

He is about to continue down but keeps his fingers just above the scar on All Might’s left. All Might’s own reaction makes Aizawa stop too, the hunter sucks in a small breath through his teeth just before the spy's fingers meet the edge of the sprawling scar tissue. Holding his hands frozen in the same position, Aizawa waits. He waits for a word or permission.

“You’ll not find my stomach.” Toshinori explains what Aizawa would have known through touch, “The healing blood is why I am still alive at all.”

Aizawa pauses before he answers with a soft hum.

Slowly, he withdraws his hands away from All Might's body, again, a signal of finishing his touches there. 

“Can I see your arm?”

  
“Oh...yes.” Toshinori nearly seems relieved to be focusing on a different area of his body. He unwraps the bandage around his left arm from the elbow down.

Aizawa holds it at the wrist, looking at the sickly change in skin color creeping up Toshinori’s forearm. The thicker patches of hair were a tell-tale symbol of the plague, but what truly sold Aizawa on the diagnosis was when he held All Might’s hand for inspection. They were large hands, calloused and rough from years of battles and work. Hands that tried to save everyone, everything. He moves down to his fingers, where normally pale colored nails would be. Toshinori’s were pooling a dark grey color.

“Have they been growing in?” Aizawa asks.

“When they seem to get sharp, I cut them. But yes…” All Might replies.

“Your eyes…” Aizawa motions two fingers beside his own temple, “The pupils aren’t torn, or collapsing. This is still...early signs.”

“I see...” Toshinori nods softly.

Seeming to be satisfied in his inspection, in silence, the spy begins to re-wrap All Might’s arm.

“Forgive me, “ All Might breaks the quiet, “For...earlier.”

  
Aizawa says nothing.

“There was no need for such action.” He rubs the back of his neck in the lack of response with a half attempted smile,  “I only made a pathetic sight of myself.”

  
“Not pathetic.”

All Might blinks at the response he is given.

“It was foolish.” Aizawa says in his usual dull tone, “But not pathetic.”

  
All Might pauses in a thoughtful silence now.

 

 

 _“You know he is a spy.” Tsukachi says, looking up from unrolling his satchel. He had asked Aizawa to make sure the home was secure from curious eyes._  
  
_“I do.” Toshinori responds._  
  
_“If he reports your condition back to the church...that will be the end of you, you know this.”_  
  
_“Yes.” Toshinori nods._

_“...Should I take care of him now?” Tsukachi asks in a simple question, drawing a line with his finger across his throat for clarity._

_“N-No!” All Might spits blood before coughing lightly to clear his throat to speak, “No...its alright.”_

_“Toshinori...if he turns you in…” Tsukachi’s brows furrow in concern._

_“He won’t.” All Might says, giving an assured nod._

_“How do you know?”_  
  
_“I have a feeling. Hes not going to turn me in, Tsukachi.”_

 

 Somethings were obvious about spies despite their naturally shrouded colors. They were professional assassins that just looked like everyone else. Underhanded, their only rule was that there was no honest rule to achieve their goal. Everyone could be a target to switch sides upon to learn a secret or achieve a kill. Somehow, Toshinori couldn't see this spy living up to such demanding expectations. 

There's more to you then trickery, Aizawa. Toshinori thinks.

“What are you smiling at?”

“Oh? Sorry, I was thinking about something.” All Might makes a motion as if to wave the thought away at Aizawa’s mentioning.

“...Fool.” The spy mutters, finishing tucking away a final strand of bandage. He stands, leaving Toshinori’s side to look about the parlor.

“Tomorrow--”  
  
“I’m sleeping here.” Aizawa interrupts, promptly sitting himself in one of the more cushioned chairs.

“...Tomorrow, we’ll go together.”

“Yes.” Aizawa leans back, closing his eyes with his hands folded neatly on his chest.

Again, All Might thought of a disinterested feline.

Toshinori rose steadily from his own seat, shrugging on the open halves of his undershirt. He moved over to the parlor couch before lying down himself. Being as lanky as he was, his feet were propped up on the arm end. He lets his palms rest on his stomach, looking up at the ceiling of his home. The dimming candle lights flickered, casting long, wavering shadows on the walls and furniture.

Outside, the sounds of the hunt echoed among the tall buildings of the city.

"Aizawa..." All Might speaks up in the dark.   
  
"Mmm?" The spy answers in a low hum. 

"Did you ever dream?"   
  
A pause.   
  
"...Yes." 

  
Quiet takes the room again.

All Might cast a last gaze at the spy sleeping in the chair across from him. As he watches in the encompassing stillness, his own eye lids grow heavy.

You won’t turn me in tomorrow, Aizawa,  All Mights thinks just as he falls into slumber.

 

I hope.  


	6. To Be Expendable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aizawa the church spy and All Might the hunter go to the grand cathedral.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is p rocky. I needed to write it though to move one with the story and end it next chapter hopefully. I hope its not too rocky and reads ok.

“A successor!”

All Might raises his left arm, his palm spread wide as a shield against the council of church officials in white, a blindfold capped choir member in its center. Their faces all twist in horror and disgust at this hunter.

Black long claws sprouted through the leather gloves at All Might’s finger tips. They gleamed a pearly shine in the pale light of the grand cathedral interior. His fingers were stretched a socket longer, leading down to a large palm that made the leather tight around it. On the path up to his shoulder, thick, coarse blonde hair sprouts, like tall blades of grass, from folds in the sleeve.  
He holds this beastly appendage out as a shield, a shield of paper.

Under the limbs protection is the church spy, Aizawa. His raven hair splays about on the cold marble floor, cracks expanding out from his head like it is caught in a spider web. Red trails bleed from under that long dark hair and down his forehead. His eyes are closed in unconscious sleep.

All Might’s muscled right arm makes a barrier in front of where he is crouched low, where Aizawa lies on the floor.

“What...did you say?” The choir member in the center in front of the cathedrals alter speaks. Her voice echoes in the spacious architecture like a church bell.

“A successor! I will…” All Might’s breaths exhale hard from between his clenched teeth. He can feel the taste of blood welling in the back of his throat and he wills it back down. “ I will...find a successor. Before my time as human comes to an end...I will find another hunter to take my place.”

Silence, punctuated only by the hunter’s breath, blankets the cathedral. The muttering sounds of decisions being made by the council of church hunters in white builds at the altar front.

“If he is showing symptoms of the beast...we should kill him now.”

“Yet he is a symbol for the people.”  
  
“Yes, a symbol of the people’s hunter.”  
  
“Only he will become a beast.”  
  
“The people will riot like beasts at the news of their most prominent protector being disposed of by the church.”  
  
“He is a pillar of faith in the hunt. In the church.”

  
Mutterings die off steadily. The cathedral is quiet once more.

When an establishment wants to keep things under control, to keep change at a minimal, they need to tend to the people. With every decent person, there were people who were small-minded and distrusting. When the people were already given reasons to be more distrusting and fearful, they could go up like dry kindling at a moments notice. That fire would spread and eventually consume the city, consume the church. Things would have to change steadily...slowly. 

These church acolytes in white were quite aware of the people.

All Might himself can feel his form strain as his time runs short. Not yet, he would not loose shape yet, but if he did not end this soon...

He darts his eyes away from the church hunters in white, looking down to the spy unconscious beneath him. Aizawa’s breaths are shallow, yet his condition seems stable to the larger hunter. 

What you said isn't true, Aizawa, All Might thinks. 

 

* * *

 

 

“My life has been that of a spy. It’s rather expendable.”

All Might looks over to Aizawa as he speaks. The two hunters stand outside on the corner of a Yharnam street. The morning air is crisp with a chill, their breath can be seen as puff of thin clouds. Over head, a church bell tolls through the cities tall build structures as the orange light of dawn begins to peek from the towers and spires.

The larger hunter stands in his hulking form, muscled arms folded. His executioners cape caches the breeze.

Aizawa, the church spy himself, stands much shorter, his hands in the pockets of his harrowed garb. The breeze takes his tall collar and restrain cloth in its gentle hands.

“Such is how it is. A spy is meant to go missing in silence.” Aizawa continues, looking down the cobblestone street again.

“Aizawa-”  
  
“The carriage is here.”  

All Might is cut off as Aizawa announces the arrival of their transportation to the Grand Cathedral this morning. Clopping down the path, a pair of black horses come around a bend, a decorative wooden and dark iron carriage in toe. It stops just so the entrance door is in front of the two hunters. On the door is the church sigil of the headless angel.

Aizawa reaches out, opening the latch. He steps to the side.

“After you.” He looks to All Might with a dull expression.

As the larger hunter steps up, the carriage dips at his weight when he enters and sits. Aizawa follows suit, leaning out to shut the door behind him.

The carriage inside is donned with red leather seats and a detailed wood carved interior. A black curtain has been drawn down for each window, keeping the privacy of those riding inside. The coach smells of incense used by the healing church.

Knocking twice on the side, Aizawa signals the driver on.

The driver cracks the lead, and the horses begin to trot forward.

Sitting across from the spy, All Might releases a breath. One of his large hands comes up to rest on his abdomen, just below his ribs.

Aizawa raises his brows at the sight, “Is something wrong?”  
  
“No, not at all.” All Might gives a tired smile to the spy, sitting back against his seat. “I am merely trying to pace myself.”  
  
At his words, Aizawa’s eyes scan the larger hunter’s figure. His head cocks in his curiosity.

“How does it work?”  
  
“Hmm?” All Might blinks.

“This.” Aizawa motions a hand in the direction of the other hunter as the carriage bumps over the road, “The way you are now.”  
  
“Ah...you see, it use to not be necessary at all.” All Might explains, his open palm crosses down his front in response,  “This was my natural appearance.”  
  
“How do you keep it?”  
  
All Might pauses at Aizawa’s question. He leans forward slightly, fingers intertwined as his elbows rest on his knees.  
  
“Earlier last night Aizawa...I asked if you dreamed. Well...so did I. You’ve seen her, yes? The doll that inhabits the dream realm.”  
  
“I have.” The spy answers, “I do remember her.”  
  
“Did she grant you power? Power through the blood?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
All Might chuckles softly, “It was strange. She took my hand in quiet, and I felt new strength each time.” He looks to the spy. “This is the power I have now in my blood and flesh, but after my injury, it has waned. I use it to retain a muscle memory of this form, but it is much like flexing a muscle...you understand?”  
  
“So, you can only hold it for so long.” Aizawa says, his hand coming up under his chin in thought. “That explains things...”

A pause fills the small space of the carriage, only punctuated by the sound of the wheels turning over the stone cobbled street outside and the clop of ironed horses hooves.

Aizawa holds out his palm.

  
“Give me your hand.”  
  
“Excuse me?” All Might’s golden brows furrows lightly in puzzlement.  
  
“Your right hand, give it to me.” Aizawa’s tone doesn’t change from its languid state when he asks again.

“Y-Yes…” The larger hunter extends his hand to the spy, who takes it in two of his own.

With a quiet focus, Aizawa pulls each gloved finger away before removing it completely. He holds All Might’s large hand in his own in silence, turning it this way and that. The same thick fingers, calluses...his palm is only slightly meatier. Wordlessly, he pushes up the folded fabric of All Might’s sleeve to show his pronounced muscled forearm underneath. His fingers cup the underside while his thumbs put pressure on the muscle moving up to the bend of the elbow.  There it was again, that heat his flesh gave off. Aizawa could feel it through his touch. It was a sort of feverish warm that burned under the skin. 

Now this was quite different from the skeletal limb from before. Yet the way Toshinori trembled once ever so slightly just as he took his hand was familiar.

“This is the same body as the one I saw last night?” Aizawa muses. 

“Is it hard to believe?”  
  
Looking back to All Might’s face, Aizawa is quiet. Even his voice sounds different...it carried more and with deeper reverberation, as if it had more room in his chest now. He releases the larger hunters hand, sitting back again.

“You shouldn’t press yourself.”

“You fret over me like a sick child. Should I feel touched by your kindness?”  All Might smiles as he withdraw his arm.  
  
“Shut up. I don’t want you passing out before we get there.” Aizawa folds his arms, turning his head to look through the crack of the window curtain to the outside city of Yharnam.

  
It is not long before the carriage stops, and the horses slow to a halt. The side door opens, letting daylight flood into the interior of the coach. Aizawa steps out first, standing to the side before All Might leaves the door frame. No sooner does the door close behind them, does the driver snap the reigns and the horses move on.

Aizawa looks up the climb of stairs to the front of the grand cathedral. He casts a glance back to All Might and raises his brows to him.

Can your one lung can carry you? Aizawa thinks.

As if hearing said thought, All Might gives the spy a nod with a broad smile. It nearly makes Aizawa roll his eyes.

Nearly.

They begin up the stairs to the grand cathedral front door, guarded on either side by a pale church giant. All Might nearly rises to their height as he passes by. The same crouched porous headed statues clutch torches by the entrance. They pass under the same long limbed porous creatures as they clutch spiraled spears crossed overhead in steepled fashion.

Waiting just before the grand floor of the alter, a church hunter in black stands.

“By order of the choir, all hunter’s weapons are to be relinquished.’ The hunter in black states, standing between the two.

Aizawa and All Might exchange brief glances. The notion is not missed by the church hunter in black.

“By the choir’s orders.” They repeat, nearly with a smug leer.

Despite the fact that All Might could have sent this church hunter through the stone wall with a single fist, he reaches to the waist of his robed garb to hand over the hunks of iron he uses to enhance his punch.

The hunter in black struggles to hold the iron, but looks to Aizawa expectantly.

“Its an accessory.” He plucks at the restrain cloth around his shoulders. “You’d deprive me of that?”

With reluctance, the church hunter in black, seeming to be demoted to doorman, steps back to allow the other two hunters entrance.

The sound of their boots echoes through the grand cathedral. No arias is heard this day, the choir is silent for this gathering. Yet both Aizawa and Toshinori can feel the presence of the healing church choir looking down from the above level.

Standing in front of the altar, are all healing church acolytes in white. Only standing in the middle, is a member of the choir herself. Her gaze it obscured by her blindfolded cap, but the two hunters swear they are under her watch even so. She gives a short bow, hands folded just over her lower torso. The acolytes in white mirror the motion, all in unison.

“Brave Hunter Yagi Toshinori, named, ‘All Might’ by the people. Servant hunter of the church, Aizawa Shouta.”  
  
At her voice, each hunter kneels and bows low. Aizawa’s black hair brushes the marble floor while All Might’s gravity defying bangs bend up and away from it.

“Rise, hunters.” The choir member speaks, and the hunters stand again on que. “You bring good news, the healing church expects it.”  
  
All Might places his fist across his chest in a form of a salute before he speaks,

“By hunters hand, the bridge beast has fallen. The main entrance to Cathedral Ward is open once more.”

“Yes...so we know. Church servants moved the creature away only yesterday night. ...You did not care to report once the task was finished?” The choir member's voice has something sickly pleasant to it. As if speaking to a librarian who knows your book to return is late, and is more than happy to lecture you on the offense.

“All Might was injured in battle.” Aizawa explains simply, “It was felt his wounds should be addressed beforehand.”

A pause.

“I see.” She responds.  
  
“Lady of the Choir, “ All Might’s voice echoes in the cathedral, “ I must admit, the size of this beast was something to behold. It is rare to see a creature of such size. Is the church not concerned of this?”  
  
“Fear not, brave hunters. The church is aware of the growing threat of beasts.” Her hands are folded neatly at her front. Both hunters can see the threaded cane that perches on her hip. “It is concerning. Trust in the good blood and that the church is moving to combat these new beasts.”

Eyes covered, the heritage shown to the old college of learning, the two hunters know she looks on to them. It is as some other eyes hold them in her gaze. A gaze not from the outside.

“As a hunter of the church...do you not put your faith in the Healing Church?”

A thick tension fils the room like a fog. It is nearly palpable to the breath like as a humid haze. 

It is all cleared away by a laugh. A hearty, boisterous laugh. The laugh of All Might.

“My lady of the choir!” All Might booms with a bright smile, “But of course! Its plain as a pikestaff! But know I am also a hunter for the people of Yharnam as well!”

They are under her stare.   
  
“...Are you aware, All Might, the man accompanying you, is a spy?” The choir member motions to Aizawa, despite her blindfolded cap.

A stillness oppresses the large room again.

Aizawa stands, unmoving.

Toshinori’s smile doesn’t waver.  
  
“ I am.”  
  
A pause.  
  
“I see. Then hunter of the church...this spy has failed to be a spy. Wouldn’t you agree?”  
  
“Well now--”  
  
“All Might... if you are loyal to the church, eliminate this spy. He is a failure to his profession for the church.”

The air is charged again.

“My lady...surely there is…”

  
  
SNAP!

  
  
All Might pauses before he looks to his wrist. Looped around tight, he immediately recognizes the capture cloth. He turns to look in the direction it came from behind him to see Aizawa at the end. The tension of the fiber is drawn taught.

“Aizawa…”  
  
“I told you my life was expendable. ” He pulls back hard on the cloth, jerking All Might off balance.

As the larger hunter stumbles, Aizawa moves with unnatural grace behind him where he twists his body in a leap and lands a kick with his heel of his boot on All Might’s back. It makes his footing loose as he lurches forward again.

“Is yours?” Aizawa says as with a flick of his wrist he sends out another snare of cloth to catch around All Might’s leg and sends the large hunter face first to the floor.

The sound of Toshinori hitting the marble reverberates around the interior of the grand cathedral.

  
The slack of the restrain cloth doesn’t remain so for long. Aizawa begins re-rolling it close to his wrists, effectively putting All Might on a tight length. Aizawa squats in front of All Might on the balls of his toes, looking down at him.

“I told you not to press yourself.” Aizawa drones. He looks back to the Choir member. “I hope the church doesn’t mind if I don’t take my sentence lying down.”  
  
“Of course not.” The choir member responds simply.

“Have concern...for yourself my friend…!” All Might grunts as he sits up partially.

Aizawa looks back to the hunter with a swish of his black hair, just in time to see he wasn’t at the end of the slack of his cloth.

Bunched in All Might’s fist, is its remains.

With a roaring shout that echoes through the cathedral, All Might stands and whips his restrained wrist around to the earth. The motion pulls Aizawa flying forward to crash onto his back on the cathedral floor.

His body bounces once on impact and cracks the marble floor.

He has no time to begin a counter attack as All Might is over him. He feels the weight of the larger hunter’s knee press into his chest.  

Toshinori's fist is reeled back, every muscle pulled tight to perform a punch.

“I will not kill you, Aizawa…” All Might’s voice is low for only Aizawa to hear. He speaks between thick breaths, wet breaths.

Aizawa can see the blood leaking from his mouth, just as All Might can see blood weeping from Aizawa’s hairline.

“Why not?” Aizawa stares, his eyes a blood shot red, “My life is expendable.”  

“I won’t…!”

“Could you even strike your fist?” Aizawa asks, his eyes All Might notices, his very irises were died crimson. His raven hair begins to slowly rise among his head. All Might tries to move, only to find he is frozen in place. As if the very blood in his veins has run cold to stop, stop his body from moving.

“Aizawa…!” All Might strains forward, “Enough….!”  
  
“End it or I will.” Aizawa speaks, his sanguine glare staring into the bright blazing blue of Toshinori’s sunken eyes.

“Enough!!”  
  
Aizawa closes his eyes and All Might’s fist bursts momentarily in size under its glove with a spurt of blood before he slams it into the marble.  

CRACK!  
  
Another spider web in the cathedral floor to match the first.

All Might’s fist is tight. He grits his teeth as he feels a red hot fire consume his arm. Claws from his own fingers pierce his palm, drawing his blood. It drips steadily from between his fingers. In that moment his muscles spasm, near triggering a release of his form, yet he clamps down with everything in his body.

“Yagi Toshinori! What are you!?” A church acolyte cries out, pointing.

Glancing down quickly, he sees the long crooked strands of blonde hair growing out from the folds of sleeve on his right arm. There was no doubt about the showing symptoms now.

Shit.

He turns his hand up slowly, seeing the black long claws pierce through his glove, his finger twitching from their sudden growth longer. His blue eyes shift immediately to the spy.

Aizawa lies, eyes closed. His hair no longer floats as if in water, it lies flat around his head. Red runs from his scalp, and his eyes are closed in his unconscious state.

What you said, isn’t true, Aizawa… All Might thinks, wiping away the blood from his mouth.

“You are a beast!” The church hunters in white move forward, drawing threaded canes and holy blades.

 

“A SUCCESSOR! HEAR ME!” All Might shouts, throwing up his beastly hand as a shield.

It is a shield that is paper thin, yet it is a shield for him and the spy nonetheless.

 


	7. The State of Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After escaping the healing church, Aizawa and Toshinori recover from their close call and begin to plan for whats next.

Aizawa Shouta never liked mornings. He never liked getting up in the mornings, that is. Night and day were interchangeable, why be awake when it’s too bright for the eyes and the sun is a searing flame.

It is another reason why he chose work as a spy. A spy was a ‘sleep in profession’, a “night owl profession.” So this is the first time in awhile Aizawa begins to blink awake to rays of light.

He groans and throws up an arm as he winces to shield his sensitive eyes.

Was this the light to the cursed afterlife? The damned eternal dream he had heard hunters whisper of? Would he wake to a sky of yellow and grey, the color of old bones, with a dead-eyed moon, the realm of a hunter’s nightmare. There he would be trapped forever, trapped forever in the hunt.

Oh well.

 It wasn’t the worst death that could have taken him. He died to All Might,Yagi Toshinori. Few could say they died at the hands of one of the greatest hunters in all of Yharnam.

Still, there was the fact that All Might was no murderer. But the church spy was not one to weep over.

He would apologize if he could to Toshinori, tell him not to let the blood of a dime a day spy weight on his hands.

Aizawa sits up slowly, preparing to take his first look at the nightmare realm that would now be his home. Instead, he opens his eyes to the soft warm light of midday flowing in through the barred window of a bedroom. The wooden walls had bookshelves along them and a lantern resting on a nightstand beside the bed he lie in. The cream blinds were slightly drawn just enough to let the sun beam flood in onto him.

If this was a hunter’s nightmare, a cozy guest room didn’t exactly spell out eternal damnation.

Aizawa looks down before he sits up in the cushioned mattress of a bed. If he wasn’t in the nightmare, where was he now? This looked familiar, but he couldn’t yet place the building.

Ow.

Sitting up had reawakened the painful parts of his body. Aizawa does a checkover, moving slowly to not rouse the pain further.

Arms? Legs?

His right arm was sprained, no doubt from when All Might threw him with his own restraint cloth. It was the only damage he could account for besides his back and ribs which thrummed with dull pains. His head hurt more than anything else. It felt as though a hammer hit was vibrating off his brain and eyeballs.

The spy remembers the muscled figure of all might looming over him in his half conscious state, as he could feel the warm of blood leaking from his skull. He could still vividly recall All Mights eyes that burned like blue fire from those dark sockets.

A noise draws the spy’s attention.

It comes from the hall just outside the door. The sound of a drawer opening, closing. Then a light clatter.

With cat like silence, Aizawa leaves from the bed he was lying on. His bear feet meet the floor and he keeps his weight on his toes to avoid creaking the floor boards. Moving along the hall, he comes to the first door where the sound comes from.

Aizawa peeks in.

In what appears to be a bathroom, sitting on a stool with his back to him, is Yagi Toshinori. He wears a white long sleeved undershirt with plain dark trousers. Every item of clothing drapes off his skeletal frame, two sizes too big.  A belt is looped around his waist, but it only hangs from its loops, holding up nothing. Near him, a pair of scissors sits on the wash basin counter, gleaming in the daylight.

It takes only a glance for Aizawa to see Toshinori is in his thin sickly state. His wild golden hair is frayed about his head while his bangs hang low.

Aizawa watches as he begins to take the scissors in his hand, and bring it to his left arm with the sleeve rolled back.

“Hey!”

“Aizawa!!” Blood spurts from Toshinoris mouth in his surprise. His fingers fumble the scissor blades and they hit the floor with a clatter. Toshinori brings his hand to his chest with a rattled exhale, as if he feared his heart would leap out from it.

“...what are you doing…?” Aizawa leans on the door frame to the bathroom, he aims for nonchalance.

“I…ahem...I was-“ Toshinori rubs the back of his neck. Before he finishes his sentence, abruptly, Toshinori bulks up to his muscled form. His dangled bangs shoot up to form their usual vigorous ‘v’ shape.  “I was tending to the aftermath of today. I’m afraid...things didn’t go so well did they?”

His voice shifts as well, now more riverbed in timbre with his change -less dry and confined.

“No.” Aizawa agrees, folding his arms. “Why am I still alive?”

All Might gives an airy laugh, or something akin to it. He takes the scissors up from the floor.

“You didn’t think I would kill you, did you?”

“...I did.” Aizawa responds in his usual deadpan fashion.

“W-why would I do a thing like that??!!” All Might sputters blood again before coughing a choke into his hand. He wipes away the blood on the back of his fist with a sigh.

“Aizawa...I must ask you, why throw away your life so easily?"

It takes the spy a moment to answer, his eyes leave All Might and wander to the ceiling.

“It’s part of the work. I told you. Just as you risk your life, I risk mine.”

“I see, I see.” All Might nods.

He then brings a large hand down on his knee for emphasis, “But using it as a reason for such - nonsense!”

Aizawa shoots an offended look at All Might as though the other hunter had given him a kick in the backside.  
  
“Risking your life is not the same as throwing it away carelessly. Nonsense! You are young but not foolish or reckless!” All Might says firmly.

Aizawa says nothing.

Confident that he had given the final word, All Might turns his back to the spy and returns his attention to his interrupted task.

Aizawa looks away again, this time for his eyes to sweep over All Might’s back.

It’s perfectly cut muscle and bone, smoothing out and in like low mountains and valleys.  It was such a broad back...trying to be a wall for everyone, everything.

With a resigned sigh, Aizawa leaves the side of the door frame, stepping into the bathroom further. He ignores his headache which reminds him of its existence with a good throb behind his eyes. Leaning over All Might’s shoulder, the spy curiously peeks at what the larger hunter is busy doing.

Using the scissor blades, All Might works at cutting away the excess hair on his arm from his sudden beastly change at the cathedral. The long blondeish strands fall away at the sharp edges and onto the floor where a cloth is spread to catch them. Yet he was botching the job, cutting uneven lengths. It winds something the wrong way in Aizawa and he can only watch a few moments more before he sighs in irritation. Noisily, he pulls up a stool in front of the larger hunter and holds out his hand.

“Give me the scissors.” He bites his cheek at the somehow obnoxious smile All Might gives him at another act of kindness from the spy. “At least let me do it right...”

With a toss, All Might flips the scissors to catch the blade between his fingers while offering the handle to the spy. Aizawa is unimpressed, though he takes the end with his own lithe fingers.

Snip.

The only sound in the bathroom space, is that of the thick coarse hair being cut away.

Snip. Snip.

“So, how did you also get out alive?”

Snip. Snip.

“I...announced my retirement.” Aizawa looks up at All Might’s words, “It seems they are willing to provide me time to find a successor...before the plague takes me. They even gave a vow of silence on the fact…”

Snip. Snip. Snip.

“How generous.” Aizawa remarks off handedly. “The church won’t risk the wrath of the people. The last thing they need is more distrust built between them.”

Snip.

“How are you going to do it?” Shouta asks.

  
Snip.

“Frankly…” All Might rubs the back of his neck with his free hand, “I am not quite sure. But there are young hunters wanting to prove themselves these days…”  
  
“Mmm…”  
  
Snip Snip.

Aizawa continues  his work in silence. He takes on the task like a tradesman, not settling for anything less than his own standards. He makes sure the length is even. Short, to be hidden under the bandage wraps. And he makes sure no stray scraggly hairs remain behind.  
Soon, All Mights arm is looking as normal as it can again.

Wordlessly, Aizawa demands Toshinori’s hand and begins to cut away the thick claws at the end of his finger tips. He files all five fingers down to a stubby length, despite their now black Inky color.

Aizawa took care in his actions, as if every movement read like words on a page. A sort of natural grace. Watching, Toshinori feels a familiar warmth bed in his chest. It wasn’t to be confused with the usual heat even off by his muscle form. That warmth then flushes to his face in a near blush which he conceals by giving a cough into his hand.

By the Gods what was it about this man? He was...ruggedly handsome yes, but his light were touches were elegant, and said something his jaded tone never revealed.

“You’re a fool.”

All Might is broken from his thoughts, he looks back to Aizawa with raised blonde brows.

“You’re a fool for everyone and everything, you should know that.”

Toshinori smiles something softer at the spy's words. “That doesn’t sound so bad coming from you.”

Aizawa’s dull grey eyes meet All Might’s bright sky blue gaze. For a moment, the spy holds eye contact before he breaks it.

He looks down to where his palm sweeps in up and down motions over All Mights muscular arm, clearing any loose shavings.

“Why do you stay like this? In this form? You said it’s taxing…” He says with a frown.  
  
“A habit.” All Might says before motioning two fingers to his own sunken, shadowed eyes. “And what about you, hmm? I didn’t forget that trick you pulled with your eyes. What was that?”

“You received unquestioned strength from the doll. I got other things.” Aizawa holds up All Mights arm to give a final inspection of his work.

“It made my blood run cold...like it froze in my veins.” says All Might, nearly shuddering again at the thought of the sensation.

“Its an old blood magic...to paralyze the blood with a glance.” Aizawa says as he lets go of All Might.

The spy takes a pause, the gears in his head turning in thought.

He then gives All Might’s form a quick look over - up and down...then up again with cool eyes.

“...A habit, huh?”

“Oh...er...yes.” All Might smiles sheepishly in response.

“...so you’re tense?”

All Might nearly flinches at the words. “Well…!”

Aizawa’s gaze does not change, staring listlessly at the larger hunter as his trademark smile begins to border on nervous.  
  
“What is it then?” From his voice, Aizawa is beginning to loose patience.

“Its...er…” All Might clears his throat to continue tripping over reasons when Shouta rises from his own seat. He sits himself on All Might's broad lap, facing him, and pulls at the restrain cloth around his neck to loosen it's folds.

"We're going to talk."

"Aizawa..." All Might's smile lessens.

He reaches up to put his palms on Aizawa's shoulders to move him off his lap, when the folds of cloth come to life. They loop around All Might's torso, pinning his arms to his sides. The cloth snaps into a wrapped formation that squeezes like a tight grip.

"Aizawa!" All Might repeats, more forcefully now.

"It must have been irritating for you. You, a hunter of strength, to loose that strength. No more dreams." Aizawa holds the ends of the cloth in his fists. His voice continues it's deep jaded drone. "That beast man you spoke of maimed you, and you couldn't just awaken and come back like new this time."

"I can break out of this, Aizawa." All Might has lost his usual jovial tone, now replaced with something more aggressive.

"I'm sure you can.”

“It would be easy. Like tearing paper.”

“If you’d insist to squander your energy rather than talk…” Shouta raises his brows.

He watches All Might flex and shift to test the binding -rolling his shoulders and trying to come to a decision. What else could he do? The spy was right, to snap the bonds would only be a waste of his effort in this form. It was the principle of the thing, pride rearing its head again. That pride was all he had left, still a lingering ember inside him. He didn't want to appear weak in front of this man, insufficient...pathetic.  Still, he hesitated once more. 

With a sigh, All Might makes his choice.

Aizawa blinks as steady streams of steam start to rise from All Mights body.

Toshinori’s shoulders,

His back,

His arms,

A cloud rolls off from his form as he withers under Aizawa.

The steam builds in the bathroom as if after a hot bath, gathering fog on the window and mirror above the washbasin. From his place on All Mights lap, Shouta feels the release of heat and it’s remnants radiate from All Might’s body. The restraint cloth looses its hold, no longer wrapped tight around thick muscle. Toshinori is only skin and bones now. His white undershirt hangs off his frame, his dark trousers billow with slack and his belt is crooked around the space of his waist.

“I am not one to be pitied, Aizawa.” Toshinori begins, his deeply sunken eyes cast in shadow, “This form of mine makes that easily so.” He takes a breath, now sounding with a wheezed hollow noise, “...The people cannot loose faith in me. As long as I am able, I will hunt to protect this city and it’s inhabitants. I won’t let this form get in my way of that.”

“You’re missing the point.” Shouta says, loosening his hands on his cloth, “I’m not ‘the people.’

Toshinori’s blue eyes relight, looking to the spy with question.

“Whatever form you take doesn’t matter to me. There’s shame in neither. ...Nor is it rational.”

Coming to life again, the restrain cloth undoes it’s loops around Toshinori, returning to settle around Aizawa's shoulders.

“...If you’re wasting energy like that for appearance’s sake.”

The two hunters are silent. Aizawa sitting in the boney lap of Toshinori who nearly seems at a loss.

“...you’re quieter like this, anyway.”

Another pause.

Aizawa looks up at an airy chuckling sound. Toshinori is laughing slightly, a smile on his skeletal face.

“Should I take that as a compliment to this form?” He asks, his grin pulling up on one side.

“....either way you talk too much.” Aizawa says before he loops his cloth over and around All Mights neck to pull him down into a kiss.

In that moment, All Might short circuits like a broken Tonitrus. Sparks flying through space.

He feels that warmth build in his chest again, spreading out from head to toe.

Wait.

Something was really building in his chest. It was rising to the back of his throat. In his immediate panic, Toshinori pats Aizawa’s hand where he holds the restraint, an attempted motion of warming.

“Mmm…” He moans a warning into Aizawa’s mouth, as the other man clearly isn’t done yet.

“Mmmph!!”

All Might pulls away, turning his head just in time to hack up a splash of blood. He coughs afew times, trying to clear his voice for speaking.

“Forgive me, my dear Aizawaaaaaaaaaaa--What are you doing?!”  
  
A chance splash of blood had landed on Aizawa’s hand, which he takes the liberty of licking off.

“You are ok?” He asks.

“Y-yes...Yes!” Toshinori responds, still seeing stars from the experience. Things were moving too fast, too slow, and it was like his thoughts were treading water.

“Good.” Shouta pats All Might’s shoulder. As he rises from his lap, he unloops the restraint cloth from the back of Toshinori’s neck. “I’m going to go set some tea on. Come down whenever you’re ready, we’ll talk about what to do next.”  
  
With his usual aloof step, Aizawa leaves the bathroom. Toshinori listens as he hears him descend the stairs of his home. He waits until he’s out of ear shot to cough on another tickle of blood and bile in his throat.

By the Gods…

What to do next?  
Toshinori hoped he simply meant the situation of the church being a looming danger of both their lives and the matter of him finding a successor.

Looking down at the remains of what had grown off his arm, Toshinori sighs. He then looks at the limb turning it this way and that way.

For the time being, he was not alone in this trial.

Spies are not known for their honesty. They’re known for their many ways to stab another person in the back. Sneaky, underhanded and difficult to gauge, they made their life doing risky work. Yet spies also did something very well.

They excelled at keeping secrets.

Toshinori felt his own secret was well kept in Aizawa’s hands.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of this 1st part of this series. Its far from perfect, and p rough. But I will prolly write more on it.
> 
> Maybe. I dunno this was p impulsive. 
> 
>  
> 
> A section at the end - where Aizawa licks the blood off his hand, is based on a comic I really like lol. 
> 
> I have provided a link to the art if you are curious: http://bktcm.tumblr.com/post/162308260840/you-cant-stop-me-ive-already-become-too-powerful


End file.
